Best Buy to Expand Home Health Care in Deal for Current Health
Current Health provides connected health devices, telehealth and patient engagement into a single platform for healthcare organizations.
According to Current Health's website, primary use cases for its technology are remote patient monitoring, care at home, and decentralized clinical trials. (Image: fizkes/stock.adobe.com)
RICHFIELD, Minn. — Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced an agreement to acquire Current Health, a leading care-at-home technology platform that brings together remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement into a single solution for healthcare organizations.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Based in the United Kingdom, Current Health’s technology allows healthcare organizations to monitor patients at home. It uses data from biosensors, such as wearable devices, to give doctors insight into a person’s medical condition and to flag if he or she needs attention.
Bringing quality healthcare into the home has become an increasingly important part of the healthcare system, often allowing patients better access and quality of life while helping to reduce costs, Best Buy states in the announcement. This trend has accelerated the reliance on the consumer-friendly technology the big box retailer offers, allowing it to play an even larger role in bringing virtual care to market.
“The future of consumer technology is directly connected to the future of healthcare,” says Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health. “We have the distinct expertise in helping customers make technology work for them directly in their homes and by combining Current Health’s remote care management platform with our existing health products and services, we can create a holistic care ecosystem that shows up for someone across all of their healthcare needs.”
Best Buy already owns businesses that operate in the space. It acquired GreatCall, a personal emergency response services (PERS) company, in an $800 million deal in 2018. The company makes easy-to-use cell phones and connected health devices, and provides emergency response services for aging adults. It acquired another senior-focused company, Critical Signal Technologies, in 2019.
Leveraging clinical algorithms that can be tailored to the individual patient, Current Health is said to identify when a patient needs clinical attention, allowing organizations to manage patient care remotely or coordinate in-home care via its integrated service partners. The Current Health platform brings together telehealth capabilities, patient engagement tools, and in-home connectivity to provide a single solution to manage all care in the home.
“Over the coming decade, significantly more healthcare can be delivered in the home. We started Current Health to make that exciting transition radically easier for healthcare providers to achieve,” says Christopher McCann, CEO of Current Health. “Best Buy has unparalleled physical reach, world-class supply chain logistics, and trusted support services – allowing us to provide a high-touch consumer experience, at scale. We’re excited to join with Best Buy Health to move safe and effective healthcare into the home globally.”
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